Dubai: At least 25 hospitalized after high-rise apartment building fire

Published January 18th, 2007 - 15:44 GMT

A high-rise apartment building under construction in one of Dubai’s new districts caught fire on Thursday, with some two dozen workers injured and doz

A high-rise apartment building under construction in one of Dubai’s new districts caught fire on Thursday, with some two dozen workers injured and dozens more trapped by thick smoke as rescue crews tried to reach them.

Witnesses told the AP, they saw a man fall from one of the 37-story building’s upper floors, and hospital officials said that three hospitalized labourers were in serious condition. There were no official reports of deaths.

Black smoke billowed from the upper floors of the glass-sheathed building, located in a cluster of apartment towers under construction on Dubai’s southern outskirts.

Trapped workers waved towels at hovering helicopters or climbed toward the roof on scaffolding. Rescuers could be seen carrying injured workers on stretchers and putting them in ambulances.

Witnesses on the street below said the fire broke out around 12:30 (local time) and burned for at least an hour before fire trucks arrived on the scene. A rescue helicopter was unable to land on the building’s roof, eyewitnesses said.

A hospital official said up to 25 workers from India, Pakistan and China were being treated for various degrees of smoke inhalation.